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The primary objective of District Department of Transportation's On-the-Job Training Program is to provide training opportunities for women, minorities, and disadvantaged persons which will increase their participation in every job classification in the highway construction industry.
The goal is to successfully place individuals in the program as trainees and to provide them with the required training to reach journeyman status.
Participants in DDOT's On-the-Job Training receive training on federally funded highway construction in the following trade areas:
Carpenter - Bridge/Highway
Cement Mason
Concrete Finisher
Construction Worker - Bridge/Highway
Electrical-Highway/Street Light
Form Setter
Iron Worker Reinforcing - Bridge
Iron Worker - Structural
Painter - Steel Bridge
Pile Driver
Pipe Layer
Stone Mason
Other trade areas are available according to the nature of the construction project
Wage Structure
Unless specified through a union agreement for apprentices, trainees are paid the trainee wages specified in the construction contract. If no trainee wages are specified in the construction contract, minimum trainee wages will be as follows (but not less than the current minimum wage):
Entry Requirements
- The applicant must be a minimum of eighteen (18) years of age
- The applicant must be in good health
- The applicant must be able to pass a drug screening test;
- The applicant cannot be a current college student on a seasonal break from classes and use the OJT program as a summer employment opportunity
- No applicant will be accepted as a trainee in any classification for which he/she has successfully completed a course leading to journey worker status or in which he/she has been gainfully employed
How To Apply
In addition to applying directly to a highway construction contractor, it is recommended that individuals interested in applying to DDOT's On-the-Job Training Program contact their Department of Employment Services Project Empowerment representative or the Workforce Development Manager of the following community-based organizations:
- Community Empowerment Training Academy
- Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA)
- Covenant House Pre-Apprenticeship Program
- DC Housing Authority
- Department of Employment Services Project Empowerment
- Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services
- Goodwill Industries-DC and vicinity
- Heavy Equipment Training Academy
- Latin American Youth Center-DC and vicinity
- Marshall Heights Community Development Organization
- Maryland Works, Incorporated
- Wheeler Creek Community Development Corporation
- Wider Opportunities for Women at Covenant House
- Various One-Stop Centers around the Washington Metropolitan Region
- Various Trade Union Organizations throughout the Washington Metropolitan Region
Or you can apply in person at the Business Opportunity and Workforce Development Center, 55 M Street, SE Washington, DC 20003.
To provide training opportunities in the highway construction industry for women, minorities, and disadvantaged persons.
Program at a Glance
Program Title: On-the-Job Training Program
Agency: District Department of Transportation
Office: Office of the Director, Business Opportunity, and Workforce Development Center
Type: Administrative
Location: 55 M Street SE, Washington, DC 20003
Website: DDOT Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE)
Related Documents


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Not necessarily. Palliative care is for anyone who has been diagnosed with a serious illness and may have symptoms from that illness or its treatment. The goal of the palliative care specialist is to reduce any signs and symptoms you may experience and make you more comfortable.
Palliative care is often confused with hospice care, which is generally for people with terminal illnesses. Hospice care workers provide palliative care, but palliative care can be given at any time during an illness, not just at the end of life.
A palliative care specialist works with your doctor and a team of chaplains, counselors, nurses and other professionals to create an individualized plan to reduce signs and symptoms you experience during your treatment. This can make it more likely that you'll complete your treatment and maintain a quality of life that allows you to continue doing things that are important to you.
Recent data show that for people with certain types of cancer, early use of palliative care services not only makes them feel better but also helps them live longer when compared with people who get standard treatment only.
Timothy J. Moynihan, M.D.
Original article: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/breast-cancer/expert-answers/palliative-care/faq-20058051
Any use of this site constitutes your agreement to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy linked below.
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization and proceeds from Web advertising help support our mission. Mayo Clinic does not endorse any of the third party products and services advertised.
A single copy of these materials may be reprinted for noncommercial personal use only. "Mayo," "Mayo Clinic," "MayoClinic.org," "Mayo Clinic Healthy Living," and the triple-shield Mayo Clinic logo are trademarks of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
I am trying to get a heater to turn on if the temperature drops below 21C, but only if the house is set to sleep mode.I have made similar events that use "Day of week" instead of "House Mode" and they work.
i will try to go through my steps:Thank you for helping, here are my steps to set up the event.From the top menu:Advanced>>Configuration>>EventsThen I pushed:Create advanced event Gave it a name and chose "Temperature changed" from the dropdown menu.I then edited the criteria to look like the image I posted, and added the command to turn the heater on.Quick reload router.PS! if I don't add the line whit House mode the event turns on the heater if temperature drops below 21C so I know that part works.Both the Temperature sensor and the switch controlling the heater is zwave.
Turn out this is a bug http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/587
Also, I would like to setup a rule to turn on the heat when the temp drops below a certain threshold between certain hours of the day, but am not sure if I can specify a range for the Time of Day box. How should I approach this?
Going forward I would like to do some cool stuff and turn off heat if no movement has been detected for a long period (several hours). I'm not sure quite how to approach that either as a motion sensor normally has a low delay (5 mins max) and I don't want to have a whole extra set of motion sensors. It would be nice if the house could drop back to the sleeping mode if no movement was detected for 1 hour and it was not in away mode. Any thoughts on this? I could script this externally but it would be nice to do in LinuxMCE.
I suppose ideally you would like to have multiple heating profiles and have different temp thresholds for each room - e.g. Low, Normal, Sleep, etc. You should be able to trigger those then from other events or buttons on the orbiters. Is this possible? I am having a hard time seeing how to trigger room and house mode changes at all from other scenarios. Which device do you target?
Sorry this is a bit long. Hope someone has some info here!
Time of Day > 05:00Time of Day < 11:00
Do you know anything about State, and about creating custom Room, House, and User modes?
My heating is on 24/7 at the moment, lol.


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Yung Berg Sighting! Few Days Ago In Lenox Mall
Yung Berg at the Lenox Mall after the alleged chain snatching and beat down in Detroit. Courtesy of The Kaos Effect
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
- Visit Hannover
- Press
- Photos for downloading
- Culinary and dancefloor sensations
Press Area in German
More Languages
Museums and Theatres
Brochure (PDF)
Marksmen's Fun Fair
Maschsee Lake Festival
Firework Competition
Hannover Living
Culinary and dancefloor sensations
Here you will find images in printable resolution relating to the Hannover region. They are to be used free of charge solely for press purposes, citing the copyright holder.
Any other use requires the consent of Hannover Marketing & Tourismus GmbH.
If you have any further questions or require other pictures, please feel free to contact us:
Maike Scheunemann
Tel.: +49 511 1234-9026
E-Mail: email@example.com


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A sushi restaurant in Prague may get a fine of up to 50 million crowns after it emerged that its employees were catching fish on the banks of the Vltava River to be used in the restaurant's kitchen, the internet site novinky.cz reported on Friday. Sanitary norms do not allow this practice. The Veterinary Authority was alerted to the practice by locals and its inspectors found evidence to confirm the suspicion. The matter is being investigated.
The Czech premiere of the Czech-British coproduction Anthropoid which recreates the daring assassination of Nazi governor Reinhard Heydrich by Czechoslovak parachutists in 1942 has been scheduled for September 28th, on Czech Statehood Day, the ctk news agency reported. The movie, directed by Sean Ellis and starring Jamie Dornan, Cillian Murphy and Toby Jones had its world premiere at the 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in July of this year.
Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev is expected to pay an official visit to the Czech Republic on September 5-6, the president's spokesman Jiří Ovčáček announced on Friday. Following talks with President Zeman, the Bulgarian head of state is due to meet with Prime Minister Sobotka and the speakers of the lower and upper houses of Parliament. The main topics on the agenda will be European security and the migrant crisis. Ovčáček noted that in view of the fact that Bulgaria has a common border with Turkey the migrant crisis is a particularly sensitive issue in the country. Other topics on the agenda are mutual business and investment opportunities.
Civic Democratic Party Senator Veronika Vrecionová will file a complaint with the Constitutional Court over a law regulating the gaming business, which allows Finance Ministry employees to block web pages on suspicion that they are offering gaming online. The law was approved by the Senate in May of this year and signed by President Zeman in June. Senator Vrecionová, who has collected 21 signatures in the upper house in support of her complaint, says that rank-and-file ministry employees should not have the right to make such a decision and argues that the law opens the way to possible violations of freedom of speech.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attended a meeting of the Visegrad Four -the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia- in Warsaw on Friday. The government leaders discussed the future of Europe after Brexit, with security concerns at the forefront of attention. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban called for the establishment of a European Army suggesting that the matter could be debated at an upcoming EU summit in Bratislava in September. Chancellor Merkel, who is striving to open a broad debate on the future of the EU, said she did not expect any fundamental decisions at the Bratislava summit, saying the meeting should merely lay the ground for further negotiations.
The New Zealand authorities say they have found the body of a Czech man who was killed on a hiking track in a remote mountainous area on the country's South Island. His partner Pavlina Pížová who was there with him managed to survive, spending two nights out in the open before finding shelter at a hut at Lake Mackenzie where she spent a month, stranded by bad weather, waiting to be rescued. The couple got lost in extreme winter weather conditions and had failed to inform anyone of their plans.
Former senior Communists such as one-time party general secretary Milouš Jakeš and prime minister Lubomír Štrougal are among 67 Czechs and Slovaks who face charges over the deaths of five German citizens who were killed trying to cross the Iron Curtain from Czechoslovakia to the West, the ctk news agency reported. Charges were pressed by the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, a group that pushes for the punishment of perpetrators of communist-era crimes. According to the organization's director Neela Winkelmann, it had decided to seek justice in Germany since only a few former rank-and file border guards had been convicted of killing people on the country's borders in the Czech Republic. According to German lawyer Konrad Manz the said crimes were crimes against humanity that are not bound by a statute of limitations.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka of the Social Democratic Party has slammed his strongest coalition partner ANO for refusing to back the Social Democrats proposal to set a firm age ceiling on retirement in the Czech Republic. The proposal would allow both men and women to retire upon reaching the age of 65. ANO leader, Finance Minister Andrej Babiš has refused to back the proposal, describing it as a populist move ahead of the autumn regional and Senate elections. Mr. Sobotka said Babiš was betraying his election promises to voters, the coalition agreement and his own party's election program. A debate on the issue is expected to continue with an alternative ceiling set at 67 years of age.
Chancellor Merkel could not realistically have expected to change the Czech Republic's stand on the issue of migration, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in reaction to the coverage of Thursday's visit by the German media. The German papers reported that Chancellor Merkel had failed to win over the Czechs on the issue of migration. The Czech prime minister, who on Thursday reiterated his government's stand that a permanent redistribution mechanism for migrants was totally unacceptable, said the German head of government was familiar not only with the Czech Republic's stand on the issue, but with that of the Visegrad Four states who are united in their opposition to mandatory migrant quotas. Sobotka said the goal of the visit was not to persuade the country to change its policy on migration, but to push ahead with a debate on the future of the EU after Brexit and discuss a number of bilateral projects.
Meteorologists have issued a heat warning for the coming weekend when temperatures are expected to reach 35 degrees Celsius in places. The coming days are expected to be the longest hot stretch in the course of the entire summer with temps between 33 and 35 degrees. The heatwave should break on Monday. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the coming weekend is the last ahead of the new school year and thousands of people will be on the road, returning home from their holidays.


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Posts Tagged 'the game credited with popularizing the genre in 1997.[1][2]'
Miniclip Players – UPDATE! – Forums? – Blog Hits – Batman Dynamic Double Team Review.
Posted by: GameZo on: November 2, 2008
- In: Blog | Cheats | game | MiniClip | News/Updates | Reviews | WalkThrough
- 4 Comments
Hey Guys! GameZo with a Totally new Post,Here is a small new Update on my Blog (Hits Awesome!) I've been getting a Lot of Hits/Views on Gamezo.org thanks to every one who Came and commented i really appreciated it 🙂 and Once it reaches 15,000 i will be making a Forum so we can discuss and some cool Contests to win Membership on a Lot of Games like Club penguin,Runescape,Spineworld,fantage and loads but Please help us Grow Gamezo!.
Oh and to those Who Play Mini Clip Players(It's back!) My Player is called BunnyHood.
And today i will be Posting a Review on the Cartoon Network game on the new Batman Series coming this Fall Batman the brave and the…. New game called Batman Dynamic Double team The point of the game is to See how many enemies you Can battle and by Collecting the Blue bugs called "SCARABS" your Blue bug mete above will be Full and then once you Press "SPACE BAR" Your Partner will come and attack some of the Enemies with this powers and you can do that so it can help you,And! Collect Health Orbs with the + Sign to Fill your health bar.
The instructions are pretty easy Mostley you need to press "Z" for most of the attacks read the Full instructions when your playing the game.
Okay. here is the Review:
Recommended for ages 6-18.
Link to game: > http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/games/batmanbb/dynamicdoubleteam/
Check the game out for yourself 🙂 and see how it works for you!
Well that's a Good Bye! for now


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When speaking of Pesto, the Italian region of Liguria naturally comes to mind. It is in fact in this region that one of the best known Italian recipes originated. In one of my previous posts I have already shared a variation of the traditional Pesto Ligure, the Trenette Avvantagiae. The recipe however, was still one of the Italian Riviera.
Today I will share a new variation, this time from the region of Sicilia, specifically from the city of Trapani. You might be wondering about the connection between these two regions so far apart.
Genova, as you might know, between the 10th and 13th centuries, was one the four Repubbliche Marinare practicing extensive trading in the Mediterranean and partecipating in the Crusades. During their journeys, the Genoese ships, coming from the East, used to stop in Trapani, which was one of Sicily's most important harbors. The Genoese sailors introduced the Ligurian pesto to the local sailors who in turn adapted the recipe to their traditions and local produces, such as mandorle (almonds) and pomodori (tomatoes).
A summer dish whose secrets lies in the quality and fresheness of its ingredients. Hot pasta is simply tossed into this hearty, creamy sauce for a simple yet satisfying meal. The cut of pasta traditionally used is called busiati, a fresh pasta, which is similar to the maccheroni al ferro and fusilli. These shapes of pasta all have in common the way they are made, with the aid of a "ferro" (similar to knitting needle) or a " buso" – hence the name busiati – (a wooden stick from a local plant). In my dish I used dry maccheroni that I was fortunate to find at my local grocery store.
Fusilli would be a perfect option and I, personally, wouldn't mind using this sauce with bucatini.
The Pesto Trapanese is also characterized by the absence of cheese, however, in my recipe I did add some pecorino cheese. I also used cherry tomatoes rather then regular tomatoes. Using the cherry tomatoes allows for a shorter time in the food processor which subsequently helps in keeping the texture of the almonds.
Note: traditionally a mortar and pestle should be used.
Enjoy the recipe with a glass of chilled Regaleali Bianco di Sicilia!
La Mia Ricetta
Maccheroni con Pesto Trapanese
Cosa Serve (What is needed)
1-1/2 cup cherry tomatoes (ripe)
15 leaves of fresh basil
1 cup of whole almond
1 clove of garlic peeled, cut in half and inner green core removed.
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup freshly grated pecorino cheese
kosher salt
1 pound of fusilli or bucatini
Cosa Fare (What to do)
Put the food processor bowl and its blade in the fridge (this will prevent the basil from becoming dark).
In a large pasta pot bring the water to boil. You will use the boiling water first to blanch the almond and the tomatoes, and then to cook the pasta.
Rinse the cherry tomatoes, cut in half and squeeze out the seeds.
Clean the basil with a damp kitchen towel.
When the water start boiling add the almonds and after 70 seconds add the tomatoes.
After 20 seconds, with a skimmer, pull both the almonds and the tomatoes out of the water and transfer to a colander. Add salt to the boiling water, lower the heat and cover to keep the temperature just below boiling.
Peel the tomatoes and set aside.
Skin the almonds and transfer to a small frying pan.
Slightly toast the almond and then let them cool completely.
Once the almond have cool down you are ready to assemble the sauce. At this time you are also ready to cook your pasta. Turn the heat up, bring the water to boil and cook your pasta " al dente"!
In the food processor grind the almond, garlic and salt.
When the almonds are roughly chopped, add the basil.
Pulse until all the basil looks like is finely chopped and blended with the almonds. The mixture should result creamy but at the same time grainy. You should be able to see and feel small bits of almonds.
Add the tomatoes and pulse until they blend into the mixture.
Lastly add the pecorino cheese and the oil and pulse to blend.
Spoon 1/2 of the sauce into a large serving bowl and diluted with some of the pasta water.
Drain the pasta and drop into the bowl and toss quickly to coat the pasta. Add the remaining sauce and toss again.
Serve in individual bowl with a sprinkle of pecorino cheese.


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It's Malala day today. It's global.
People around the world are expected to hold vigils and demonstrations honoring Malala and calling for the 32 million girls worldwide who are denied education to be allowed to go to school.
Pakistani prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf saluted Malala's courage and urged his countrymen to stand against the extremist mindset that led to her attack.
That's sweet. But…when I say "global" I mean partly global. I don't mean Malala's own hometown, for instance. It's not Malala day in Mingora, not openly.
But in Mingora, the threat of further Taliban reprisals casts a fearful shadow, and students at Malala's Khushal Public School were forced to honor her in private.
"We held a special prayer for Malala today in our school assembly and also lit candles," school principal Mariam Khalid said.
"We did not organize any open event because our school and its students still face a security threat."
Though their bid to kill Malala failed, the Taliban have said they will attack any woman who stands against them and fears are so great that Khalid said even speaking to the media could put students' lives in danger.
Because that's how it is. We can all have decent lives in which we can pursue our dreams only on the sufferance of violent thugs. If there are enough violent thugs determined not to let us and not enough law and civil society and policing to stop them, then we can't.


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NASA satellites have snapped new pictures of the devastating floods and fires in Japan from the deadly earthquake and tsunami that struck the country on Friday.
Photos from NASA's Earth-watching Terra and Aqua satellites paint a stark picture from above of the damage by the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami it spawned. They show Japan's northern region, particularly the city of Sendai — which is visible inundated by floodwaters and fires in the satellite views.
The images were taken today (March 12) — one day after the natural disaster as part of NASA's MODIS Rapid Response system, which uses satellites to provide near real-time images of Earth's landmasses every day. The system can snap photos of Japan twice a day, NASA officials said. [Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Pictures]
Space news from NBCNews.com
Teen's space mission fueled by social media
Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: "Astronaut Abby" is at the controls of a social-media machine that is launching the 15-year-old from Minnesota to Kazakhstan this month for the liftoff of the International Space Station's next crew.
- Buzz Aldrin's vision for journey to Mars
- Giant black hole may be cooking up meals
- Watch a 'ring of fire' solar eclipse online
- Teen's space mission fueled by social media
The photo from NASA's Aqua satellite was taken at 2:46 p.m. Local Japan Time and shows a dark plume of smoke emanating from the Sendai region. The black smoke can be seen blowing far out to sea. Scientists used the Aqua satellite's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, to generate the photo-like view.
"Clouds prevented MODIS from identifying the location of the fire within the city, however this type of black smoke usually originates from oil or gas files," wrote NASA's Holli Riebeek of the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in a statement. According to news reports, a refinery was set ablaze in the Sendai region after the earthquake struck. [Aqua satellite photo of Japan quake aftermath]
The Aqua satellite image also shows clouds of blue and green sediment along the coastline of Japan, which may be mud or other debris churned up by the powerful tsunami waves, NASA officials said.Video: Death toll rises amid Japan disaster (on this page)
NASA's Terra satellite snapped photos earlier in the day at 10:30 a.m. Local Japan Time — before the Aqua views — and reveal extensive flooding along Japan's northeastern coast. Like the Aqua satellite, Terra used its MODIS instrument to record the tsunami damage. [Terra satellite photo of Japan tsunami flooding]
The floodwaters appear in dark blue or black and stretch well inland of the coastline when compared with another Terra image taken on Feb. 26, before the earthquake.
"MODIS detected a fire burning near the shore north of Sendai," Riebeek wrote, adding that the fire is noted with a red box in the image. "It is also surrounded by floods."
The March 11 quake was the largest ever recorded in Japan and is the world's fifth largest earthquake to strike since 1900, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).Video: Japanese race to cool at-risk nuke plants (on this page)
The epicenter of the earthquake was 231 miles (373 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo and 80 miles (130 km) east of Sendai, Honshu, according to the USGS.
Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter@Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
- Photos: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Pictures
- FAQ: What's the Science Behind Japan's Quake and Tsunami?
- 'Supermoon' Did Not Cause the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami
© 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.


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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled a Central Florida woman who donated her egg to her lesbian partner, who then gave birth to the resulting child they intended to raise together, does have parental rights to the child even after the adults' relationship soured and the couple separated.
The court, in a 4-to-3 decision, said the biological mother should be treated in the courts similarly to an unwed biological father who wishes to play a role in the life of a child he fathered.
The court ruled the Florida law that prevented the biological mother from asserting parental rights was unconstitutional, violating the due process and equal protection clauses of both the U.S. and Florida constitutions, as well as the privacy provisions of the state constitution.
The court's majority said it relied on "long-standing constitutional law that an unwed biological father has an inchoate interest that develops into the fundamental right to be a parent protected by the Florida and United States constitutions when he demonstrates a commitment to raising the child by assuming parental responsibilities."
The decision means a trial court will now decide such issues as parental time-sharing and child support, based on the best interests of the child – just as it would in any other custody matter involving unmarried parents.
The center of the dispute, a now-9-year-old girl, was born in Brevard County in January 2004. Both her birth and biological mothers had, by then, been in a committed relationship for nine years and they agreed one would donate the egg, which would be fertilized and carried to term by the other, who was infertile.
The child lived with both parents, who owned a house together and a shared a joint bank account, until the couple separated in May 2006. The biological mother still provided support payments and continued a relationship with the child until the adults' relationship deteriorated further and the birth mother cut off all contact in December 2007.
Together they sent our birth announcements, declaring, "We proudly announce the birth of our beautiful daughter" and both participated in the girl's baptism and early education decisions, the court noted.
But after more than two years, the couple's relationship soured and, "as is all too commonly seen in child custody proceedings, one parent (the birth mother) severed the other parent's … contact with the daughter the couple had jointly planned for, conceived, and raised as a family," wrote Justice Barbara Pariente.
After locating the birth mother and child in Australia, the biological mother sought to establish parental rights and a declaration that Florida's assisted reproductive technology statute did not apply to her, even though it claims egg donors relinquish any claim to parental rights or obligations to the resulting child. There are exceptions for a "mother and father" who commission someone to carry a baby to term, but not for same-sex partners who do so -- as this couple did.
A Brevard Circuit judge agreed with the birth mother -- finding the law as written prevented the biological mother from obtaining parental rights -- but expressed hope an appellate court would overturn his ruling.
An intermediate appeals court did reverse the trial court and the Florida Supreme Court agreed Thursday that the statute was unconstitutional.
Pariente -- joined by justices Peggy Quince, Jorge Labarga and James Perry -- was careful to distinguish the ruling in this case from those where a sperm or egg donor who had no interest in raising the child would later assert rights to the child. The law refers to a mother and father who contract with an egg or sperm donor to help produce their child as a "commissioning couple."
"Our resolution of the constitutional issues presented in this case does not undermine the statutory protections or certainty provided to commissioning couples in any way," Pariente wrote for the majority.
The opinion notes the case involves "an unmarried woman who was part of a same-sex couple seeking the assistance of reproductive technology to conceive a child to jointly raise and who provided biological material to her partner with the specific intent to become a parent."
By saying "mothers and fathers" have parental rights to a child born with the assistance of in vitro fertilization, the statute "unconstitutionally creates an unreasonable classification based on sexual orientation," the court.
"The legal parameters and definitions of parents, marriage, and family have undergone major changes in the past several decades," the court noted, dating to the lifting in 1967 of Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. The court noted in passing the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which found federal law may not infringe on the rights of same-sex couples "to enhance their own liberty" and to enjoy protection "in personhood and dignity." But, the opinion said, that decision on DOMA did not "impact our ultimate analysis."
In dissent, the court's three more conservative justices – Chief Justice Ricky Polston, R. Fred Lewis and Charles Canady – disagreed at the outset with the majority's use of the term "biological mother" for the woman who provided the egg to be fertilized. Polston, instead, used the term "egg donor."
The dissenters warned the majority it could be accused of " improperly constitutionaliz(ing) their own preferences and thereby impos(ing) them upon the rest of the citizenry in perpetuity." They argued the constitutional claims analyzed by the majority were not properly raised and preserved in the lower courts and, therefore, should not be considered by the Supreme Court.
They also claim the egg donor waived her claims to the child when she signed standard informed consent forms, but the majority said she did not waive her rights as a donor who intended to raise the child with the birth mother.
The dissent claim the majority's analysis has "no logical end point" or "obvious stopping point."
To illustrate that logic, Polston writes in dissent: "Does this mean that a child could have a constitutional right to two mothers and father (or two fathers), perhaps where a married, heterosexual couple agrees to and then subsequently raised a child with the egg donor, an egg donor who is in a committed relationship with a man other than the genetic father?"
The decision comes in a state that forbids recognition of same-sex couples and once prohibited homosexuals from adopting children.
But the majority found neither of those provisions applied here.
"The state would be hard pressed to find a reason why a child would not be better off having two loving parents in her life, regardless of whether those parents are of the same sex, than she would by having only one parent," the majority wrote.
The parties have remained confidential in court filings: the birth mother is known as D.M.T.; the biological mother as T.M.H.
Robert Segal, attorney for T.M.H, said his client "was delighted. We're all very happy here by the court's decision. The court is recognizing the value of the parental relationship for what it is, as opposed to singling people out based on their sexual orientation."
Segal said his client has not seen her daughter since December 2007, but he hoped to confer with opposing counsel and the trial court judge next week to begin to work out an arrangement where "she will get to see her daughter as quickly as possible."
A call to D.M.T.'s attorney has not been returned.


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The Queen is much more than an elegy for the British monarchy. By recounting in 2006 the real elegiac events of the first week of September 1997 - the death of and popular lamentation for Diana, Princess of Wales - director Stephen Frears and writer Peter Morgan have extended the target of denunciation from crown to state. Unlike most journalistic or academic essays, they touch upon certain deeper feelings and attitudes. Like poets, film directors and scriptwriters may sometimes try to be unacknowledged legislators of an age - and in this case, I think that some acknowledgement is due.
Thin political rectitude often dismisses such concern as sentimental or frivolous, and The Queen hasn't entirely escaped the treatment: exploitation of mere gossip, impropriety of presenting living people who can't answer back, the supposed quirks of Royal Household personalities - and so on. Fortunately, few hearts touched by the tale are likely to worry over these fences. Today they stand in dire need of such legislation, even more than at the time of the dreadful events in the Paris tunnel.
Frears's focus is indeed on the stilted theatre of a regal establishment accustomed to ritual worship and obedience, and unable to understand the weird revolution going on outside its front gate. However, the accompanying point is to show how that contradiction was resolved by the other Great-British Household, the one at 10 Downing Street. And the film has appeared just as the latter is writhing under a siege worse than that of Buckingham Palace in 1997.
The story is of a shortlived reprieve, within a continuing historical trial and judgment. The film does use hindsight wisdom to hint at this; but after all, it's only reminding the audience of what it knows already (and not only in Great Britain). In the film script, Helen Mirren's depth as an actress almost makes plausible a suggestion that, at the time, Queen Elizabeth may have understood how temporary her salvation might prove. Naturally that will only be verifiable at greater historical distance.
The subject people
Even at nine years' distance, however, the question is effectively posed of just what was so smartly "saved" in 1997, and of what is likely to succeed the story's real end, as yet unreached. Camilla Parker-Bowles country? Not at all likely, in the view of Frears and Morgan. They know what they're talking about here, having previously made a drama-documentary about the rise of Blair, and his long wrangle with his chancellor Gordon Brown. And most viewers probably agree with them.
The 1997 revolution was weird, but real, and is now showing itself to be irresistible in another disconcerting form. Today, the adroit saviour of the crown from post-Diana wrath finds himself the victim of much greater popular resentment, his party torn apart by implausible successors fighting madly to (once more) restore a dying régime. While Queen Elizabeth II may yet check one or more of them in at Buckingham Palace, few will see in this more than a rite of passage; and fewer still will expect King Charles III to carry on bestowing the sovereign power.
But how is this possible? The principal actor in The Queen is not the much-praised Helen Mirren. It is the people in the streets. The film displays this movingly, without needless excess. At first we see a few bunches of flowers beside the palace guardsmen; then something astonishing happens. Looking backwards from the film's vantage-point, it can be seen as a single colossal heartbeat, which deposited across the middle of London a floral ocean of mingled grief, longing, inscriptions and bad verse, and endured through to Diana's funeral and internment.
The Frears film makes sense because a good deal of this persists, nine years later. It was an act of presence, as it were, and not merely of whimsy or nostalgia. A turning so profound and unexpected was not related exclusively to the victims in the Paris tunnel. This is, incidentally, why the doubts and recriminations about Diana herself (common in 1997 and dusted off for the film) seem irrelevant. The car-crash triggered something else. It was "in people's hearts" all right; but not only in individual romantic fantasies. A rediscovered societal instinct was at work too, a togetherness - a sensation related to underlying community and will, to identity and "what we stand for" (or ought to stand for) as both people and state.
Both place and time are too important to leave out. One can call it "nationalism", I suppose, but more definition is needed. The United Kingdom population inhabits a country where since the mid-19th century an extensive, important zone of popular imagination had been over-concentrated upon royalty.
The royal imaginary
For a society anchored in class rigidities, this proved an ideology capable of holding together the emerging collectivity of modern, urbanised nationalities. And it did so by avoiding (or minimising) the abstract concepts that had been linked to earlier modern revolutions like those in America, France and elsewhere. Queen Victoria's nationhood emphasised the new period's romance and circumscribed its principles of universal liberté and egalité.
David Cannadine and others have shown how UK circumstances favoured this lopsided style of "imagined community", and thus bore early-modern forms into the age of empires. Other states did try the formula, like Austria-Hungary, the Russian Czardom and Spain; but none succeeded so well.
All too well, one could also say. The system's underlying archaism absorbed working-class socialism well enough, but would eventually give way under the tensions of a less restrained capitalism. This is why locating the drama retold in The Queen is so important: it was roughly halfway between the expulsion of Margaret Thatcher (1988-90) and that of her successor, Blair (2005-07). Their two "-isms" have marked the principal phases of capital's social triumph and domestic integration.
It is often too readily assumed that empire was itself responsible for the reconstruction and popularity of the British monarchy. Certainly, the UK's global and naval overstretch encouraged anachronism to persist; but this wasn't just via uniforms, borrowed bagpipes and cut-price overlordship. Such conditions also diluted and staged capitalism's domestic mutation. While British societies had of course been pioneers of capitalist development they were never (so to speak) alone with it, until Mrs Thatcher's assumption of office in 1979. Only after that did they find themselves simultaneously deprived of "overseas", the former patriciate, credentials of Greatness, and the supposed alternatives of socialism.
Hence a sourness and confused nostalgia was to poison the material achievements of the 1990s, a longing that failed to find a name - until Diana provided one, and then consummated it with her death. The old royal establishment had merely gone along with the process; now here it was back, emanating a fossilised indifference to popular feelings by denying the new music, and burying itself at Balmoral.
A far horn
In the film we hear Prince Charles whining about being a "moderniser" in the background. But Blair understood the great force of a claimant and disappointed nationalism, and how - unless tamed - it could sweep away much more than the monarchy. He was already aiming to defuse peripheral nationalism (in Scotland and Wales) with devolution. But the moral collapse of Windsordom was that much more important. It would have really put the "Third Way" on the spot, and had to be averted. Frears relates how the "people's princess" was accorded due recognition: Queen Elizabeth was first nudged then dragged back to London, where the mutinous crowds found they "weren't so bad" after all.
Thus "Blairism" could carry on. That is, the old two-party see-saw, a domesticated House of Lords, and sufficient continuity to make the masses swallow more deregulation, a diminished public sector, and more supine dependence on the United States in lieu of former grandeur. Had the royal pillars of the old constitution collapsed, then it would have been difficult to avoid reforming all the rest. No think-tank could have "invented" a new monarchy today: some kind of republicanism would have imposed itself. And that would have been very hard without replacement of Westminster, and of the winner-takes-all machinery so dear to both great modernising parties.
This is what "grovelling" is about. The film skilfully shows how it worked in Blair's personal case; but Gordon Brown is also on record as thinking the royals "do a very good job". Bowing to Her Majesty encourages people to bow in other directions as well. Thus modernisation can become instant tradition, and an instinct for continuity is maintained. That's what Anglo-British modernisation is about: never allowing it to get the upper hand, not being carried away by it.
In this perspective, millions of people getting carried away by tears and inchoate longing is clearly the worst of precedents. If they felt they had demolished the monarchy, what might they not get rid off next? Blair's press secretary Alastair Campbell and wife Chérie Blair are shown in the script as mocking the mummified features of courtly existence. But this is thin scorn, meant to support Westminster's half-democracy by decrying excesses and moribund rituals.
What the mourners then got was Blairism, the prosecution of Thatcher's socio-economic revolution, prostration before George W Bush, war in Mesopotamia and Afghanistan, evasiveness in Europe and the pumping up of Britain's pretended world role (including its nuclear arms). It is not necessary here to deny all saving graces to Blair's (or Brown's) domestic policies. But for the government that began by saving Queen and crown, foreign policy was to grow ever more dominant, eclipsing their effects.
Saving and being able to mobilise British nationalism has always been the key issue. These powers were implicitly menaced by any unsanctioned surge of popular feeling or resentment - like the huge anti-war demonstrations that filled some of the same streets a few years later. Opening such doors is itself the threat, even without banners declaring "Republicanism - This Way!"
In this film we see how Blair and Campbell saved the old essence of state. Then viewers come out blinking into the light of Gordon Brown's attempt to "elect a new people" (in Bertolt Brecht's famous dictum) that might settle for a new modernised, quasi-American "vision" - that is, an orderly all-British identity, more capable of containing devolution and multicultural discontents within prescribed limits, and thus of renewing ancien régime leadership (I and others have written at greater length on this theme in a special book-length issue - entitled "Gordon Brown: Bard of Britishness" - of Agenda [Cardiff], the journal of the Institute of Welsh Affairs).
British republicanism is unthinkable solely in these hidebound Anglo-British terms. One need only look across to Ireland and observe how the population of a republic enjoys voting for a symbolic president. And in a way, that's what the enormous mourning crowds were doing in 1997, and why they had to be stopped: they were as good as "voting" with feet and flowers for something hopefully better, more humane, sweeter and more meaningful.
But shortly thereafter, in 2001 and 2005, about half of them wouldn't bother to vote at all, for anything on offer from the post-funereal, living-dead régime. They were not to be allowed a Mary Robinson, or a President Mary McAleese. Like an elected second chamber, a president might have interfered with the preserved and sacred essence: prime-ministerial and party authority, the old pantomime that has "served us so well".
A civil society denied state and constitutional reforms appropriate to the great changes it has suffered, ends by "reforming itself" piecemeal, fragmentarily, emotively, sometimes blindly or negatively, or by dissociation, withdrawal and escape. The Queen recounts a milestone-episode in this breakdown: the moment when a people stopped recognising itself in the traditional looking-glass, and called for another, only to be rewarded with Prince Charles, a warlord-premier, and the crazily enhanced power of the other Household at Number 10 Downing Street.
One of the most discussed sequences of the film shows Her Majesty stranded in a corner of the Balmoral wilderness, communing with a magnificent stag. Is this the errant spirit of Diana, or simply of something other and better? Anyway she advises him to make himself scarce, since Philip and his boys are out with the guns. Hopeless, naturally: she later finds the beheaded corpse strung up, and it turns out the kill was prolonged, and probably agonising. It bled to death in stages, an appropriate symbol for the later phase of Blairism.
Sure, these "legislators" of the heart don't end with formulae for what ought to come next. All we can know - more certainly after the movie - is that it will not be like the timeless essence so complacently projected in the conclusion of Kenneth O Morgan's Twentieth-Century Britain : A Very Short Introduction (2000), a work one can only hope has not bled too many non-Brits to academic death: "Debates over the significance of Diana's death offered insights into the abiding folk memory...At the dawn of the new millennium, as in times of greater pomp and power in the past, the values of being British could still be affirmed and sustained. So might they be again, in centuries yet to unfold..."
Come on, republicans of all nations and classes; give this kind of stuff both barrels, Diana and the stag will be with you.
This article originally appeared on openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence. To view the original article, please click here.


text:
Short Cuts: Nothing is as it seems edition
By Lesley | June 30, 2011
First, let's talk about me. Over on xoJane, I've written about dudes' urge to take pictures of their junk, and a really annoying Yoplait commercial (talk about redundancy!), and storing stuff in my bra, and my ongoing sadness over the loss of Huge, and the disgusting misogynist and homophobic rant from a Southwest pilot. Also, on Gaga Stigmata I wrote an analysis of the video for "The Edge of Glory", using its emphasis on individualism as a theme.
Oh, what's that picture, you ask? It's just me and Savannah Dooley, the giant awesome brain behind the aforementioned Huge. I got to have lunch with her and my new West Coast Mom Winnie Holzman while visiting Los Angeles earlier this month, and I am not overstating the matter when I say that they are two of the smartest and nicest people I have ever had the privilege to meet.
Commenter Medea has pointed out this fascinating NYT article about identifying the sex of spotted hyenas. Did you know that female spotted hyenas have erectile appendages that look — and function and even feel — just like a penis and testes? It's true.
In contrast to a vast majority of mammals, including other hyena species, female spotted hyenas are substantially more aggressive than males, and they are also socially dominant over males. Females are roughly 10 percent larger than males, and this too is a pattern reversed from that seen in a vast majority of other mammals. In these and many other respects, spotted hyenas appear to violate many of the accepted "rules" of mammalian biology… In contrast to other female mammals, including female striped and brown hyenas, the female spotted hyena has no external vaginal opening. Instead, the female's clitoris is greatly elongated to form a fully erectile "pseudopenis" that is nearly indistinguishable from the male's phallus.
…Astonishingly, the female spotted hyena urinates, copulates and gives birth through her pseudopenis.
Nature is fascinating, y'all. Medea points out a commenter's criticism over the use of the term "pseudopenis", and I have to agree — it sure seems like a functional organ to me. More to the point, this is a wonderful example of how cultural ideology about sex and gender is forcibly applied even in circumstances that seem to defy everything we assume we know about these subjects. We can't call it a "real" penis not because it doesn't work like a "real" penis, but simply because it exists on a female animal, and females can't have penises. It's almost nonsensical, but it demonstrates how attached we are to our comfortable methods of classification, even when dealing with freaking hyenas.
In Stupid Medical Tricks news, commenter thirtiesgirl has brought us an article on a British study showing that they can "cure" type 2 diabetes by starving people for eight weeks. I mean, they can "cure" some of them, for three months at least, as the researchers only followed the results for that long.
Machiavellian medicine at its finest, folks. Any health issues caused by starvation are irrelevant, as are any long-term effects on metabolism. It is totally cool to abuse the bodies of fat people because obviously fat people can't be trusted with their bodies in the first place.
There is a colonialism joke in here somewhere, but I'm too depressed to make it.
Diet Coke-heads, be sad: your beverage of choice apparently makes you fatter and may put you at greater risk for type 2 diabetes. This is an interesting companion piece to another recent report showing that faux fats — like the anal-leakage-causing Olestra — also make people fatter.
The data didn't say why diet sodas might play a role in weight gain, but previous research suggests it has to do with the disconnect between the taste of artificial sugars and their lack of calories. The brain is wired to expect a big load of calories when foods taste sweet or fatty. But because diet foods fail to deliver, it throws the brain out of whack. Studies in animals suggest that artificial sweetener consumption may lead to even more eating and weight gain, perhaps in part because it triggers the body to start storing more calories as fat.
To be clear: I am not into policing people's food choices for any reason, not even their hypothetical health consequences. However, I do have a problem with diet foods, and my problem is that by buying and eating them, we participate in a culture that disdains good food eaten in self-determined portions, and support an industry that profits by its exploiting customers' guilt and shame over what they eat and, by extension, how they look. That said, I've never been much of a soda-drinker or chip-eater, so it's fairly easy for me to be principled on this front.
The recent exception to this is Mexican Coca-Cola, which is made with real sugar instead of gross high fructose corn syrup, and which I only just discovered on my last trip to Los Angeles earlier this month. I've since learned my local grocery store has them too. So right now I'm drinking like three or four of these a week, which feels deliciously self-indulgent.
Got any links I missed? Drop 'em in the comments.
51 Comments
The best part about that stupid horrible diabetes study is the sample size. Seriously, ELEVEN PEOPLE? And the fucking BBC thought this was worth reporting on? (My partner linked me an article about it from the Beeb the other day.) I haven't taken statistics, but I'm pretty sure that's too small to extrapolate STARVATION CURES DIABETES from, especially when it only worked on seven of them.
I hadn't heard that. Seriously? They can claim it's a study with ONLY 11 PEOPLE?!? What the hell?
yeup eleven people and a 3 month follow-up. Science at its best! Also.. isnt it dangerous to encourage random people to try extreme low-calorie diets with this kind of thing? It sounds like it would be incredibly triggering to someone who is both overweight and has a history of eating disorders.. Especially with diabetes thrown in there.
Responsible research dammit! It isnt that hard!
And european Coke is waaay nicer than american Coke- real sugar again. I drink rather too much of it but as vices go it could be worse.
I've found that, among people who drink soda, there is a serious Diet Coke fanaticism. Of course I drink a fair amount of soda myself (about 1 can a day) and every time someone tells me soda is bad for me and blahblah I kind of want to rip their head off.
I don't like diet sodas because I feel like they masquerade as a "health food" and advertisements argue that people who drink them are being "good" and "better" than those non-diet soda drinkers. Soda isn't particularly good for you, now let's all make the decision about what we put into our bodies as adults, without silly ads telling us what foods make us good people. (Hint: no food. Food doesn't make you good or bad. Food is neutral).
What about us people that drink Diet Coke because we like the taste better? 🙁
Yup, this is me – regular soda tastes TOO sweet to me. Unless it's mixed with JD – I will drink regular cola with JD because that masks the sweetness a little, and because hubby doesn't like the diet version, and it's easier for us to share a can.
I saw that starvation thing, and I was like, WTF? I mean, even IF it 'cured' diabetes, how humane is it to put someone on 600 calories a day? And, if they do wider studies at any point, who'd like to bet that there will be people for whom this doesn't work…and that they'll then be blamed for not being able to stick to a very severe regime that nobody can possibly get all their necessary nutrients from? OTOH, I can imagine it being insanely popular with a lot of people who already believe being fat deserves punishment. Gahhh.
I don't really have a problem with people who drink Diet Coke so much as the ways in which ads and such portray drinking it. I dislike the portrayal of diet sodas as something you drink because it means you're "good." "Drink Diet Soda X with lunch and you can 'have' a piece of cake later!" That kind of thing. Hopefully that made sense. 🙂
I don't have the better link handy, but the LA Times article seriously misrepresented the article which was closer to the scientists.
They were emphatic about "don't try this at home". They didn't say "starve yourself". They said they weren't sure about the side effects of living on 600 calories/day for 2 months. They were clear that it was a preliminary study.
This doesn't mean I think it was a brilliant idea– the risks of such severe underfeeding are probably higher than they estimate, and I wonder if they were monitoring hearts as well as pancreases.
I thought it was inevitable that people would try that diet at home, anyway, but the LATimes article makes the situation worse.
I just had the hugest smile after seeing this pic of you and Savannah!! That's so badass!
omg that Hyena article? uggh looks like a penis, functions like a penis, must be a PSEUDOPENIS. seriously? blehh
The diabetes article just pisses me straight off! I agree with Shiyiya that the group was entirely too small, and why were all of the people they chose to starve FAT?? Because the diabetes in thin people is caused by magic? Or maybe those people THOUGHT about eating too much, so they are just honorary fatties?? ugggh this article is the worst. I especially love (hate) the photo right at the beginning, of a big fat belly with the caption "Obesity is the leading cause of Type 2 diabetes". Can they site a source for that claim? As far as I knew, from reading medical articles, so far doctors don't actually know what is triggering diabetes. Apparently "common knowledge" is so abundant, there is no need to link it as a source.
Well, the development of insulin resistance is associated with obesity, but the causal relationship isn't really provable. Metabolic syndrome, of which obesity can be a symptom, is strongly associated with certain kinds of diets, but it's also equally strongly associated with stress, overwork, lack of sleep, where you live and your socioeconomic status. But admitting that stress, overwork, lack of sleep, unequal distribution of wealth and food deserts are a problem would mean we'd have to do the hard work of fixing that and corporations benefit from all those things, so it's easier for the government to yell at people that they eat too much and that's why they have diabetes.
Trufax: if you go to Google Fusion Tables/Maps and pull out public data on what areas are the "fattest" and what areas are the "least healthy" they do have a similarity, but if you then pull down the data on socioeconomic status and poverty, you quickly see that that correlates nicely with both. Nobody wants to talk about that one, but socioeconomic status is a far more potent predictor of your health status than how much you weigh or how much exercise you get. Stress causes inflammation and inflammation kills; inflammation is also looking more and more like a mediator of insulin resistance.
(I'm not a doctor. I work for doctors–preparing journal manuscripts and such–and I spend a lot of time searching Pubmed for things, and in the process of so doing, I also find and read articles that interest me.)
word to that! ^^
Re: the great diet soda controversy…am not much of a soda drinker (unless there's Scotch involved & the soda's plain), but when it comes to artificially sweetened-flavored-fatted-anything, I stick by something my mother always said about packaged food:"If you need a degree in chemistry to read the ingredient list, you don't want to put that in your body".
What's really knee-slappingly hilarious about the whole "diet food makes you fat" thing is that I was fed almost exclusively low-fat/fat-free snacks from the time I was six-ish, and switched to diet sodas when I was ten, as the result of my mother's increasingly futile attempts to keep me from getting any chubbier. I ate SO MANY fat-free Jello pudding cups when the other kids were eating Oreos, I would say y'all have no idea but I'm sure some of you do. THE IRONY. It is killing me and all of my rolls.
I drink diet coke. All. the. time. It is not in order to lose weight or avoid sugar. In fact, I like to have a diet coke with a nice big piece of cake. I truly prefer diet to regular coke. I do not drink diet coke to be "good." In fact, when I have in the past tried to be "good," I cut out diet coke in favor of sparking water.
In other news, I prefer skim milk to whole. Again, not about the calories or fat. Admittedly, both of these preferences may be linked to my childhood, where we only had diet soda and skim milk in the house. So… maybe I got used to them. But to this day, when I try the full sugar/fat versions, I don't like them. Although I sure do like sugar and fat in other forms.
I don't think we should shame any foods or label them "bad," even the "diet" ones. We should; however, continue to criticize the way foods are marketed, be they "diet" or otherwise.
I started drinking diet soda as a young teenager, and got to a point where I would never, *ever* drink regular soda. Now I will, though there's sometimes still this weird mental block. I usually ignore it, though, and I've mostly given myself permission to drink whatever.
And yet, even with that permission, I start pretty much every day with a Coke Zero. I am not a fan of drinking plain water most of the time, but I also tend to be fairly thirsty normally. I can easily drink three or four sodas in an evening, and I doubt that much sugar on a regular basis is helpful, even if I don't buy that "your body doesn't have any idea how to account for drinks with OMG calories" line.
With the study, it did say they controlled for a lot of things, but was dieting one of them? Because restricting your calories, all by itself, can lead to weight gain, and drinking diet sodas goes along with dieting in general.
Yes, this exactly. When someone posted this diet soda article to Facebook, I commented "I bet $1000 that the researchers didn't control for the weight gain that we know is associated with attempts at weight-loss dieting, which I suspect is probably highly correlated with drinking diet soda." Also, note the ages of the people involved – seniors in their 70s and 80s – and contemplate the fact that the article doesn't talk at all about the protective effects of higher weight on older people, who have better outcomes from illness and surgery when their weight is higher.
I like Diet Coke/Coke Zero, and can't stand sugar soda. I'm also tired of the "don't put CHEMICALS IN YOUR BODY" meme, which gets couched in exactly the same terms as "don't put CHOLESTEROL IN YOUR BODY" or "don't put CARBS IN YOUR BODY" etc. etc. Moderation in all things, including moderation. I just bought a SodaStream to make my own fizzy water since my dependence on TJ's fizzy lime water was piling up too many bottles but was also helping me to keep the diet soda habit down. But if I want something with my popcorn and a movie, or my pizza, or to mix with Jack Daniels, I'll have diet Coke please.
Also, thanks for pointing out THIS in your article on the Yoplait ad: "Too often, the only measurable difference between a diet and an eating disorder is a certain number of pounds."
I have read a lot of articles discussing that ad, and most of them focus at least briefly on the fact that the woman doing the disordered thinking is "ALREADY SLIM" (for example, see Huffington Post). See, that's why it's wrong for her to agonize about food! She doesn't have to! But if you are ACTUALLY FAT… it's a whole different story. /end rant In all seriousness, as I learn more about eating disorders, I am shocked to learn that the behabior described as part of the disorder is the exact same behavior that I have been encouraged to take part in since childhood, in the name of dieting and with the goal of becoming less fat. "Do whatever it takes!" I have heard that way too many times.
Oh, and I always store things in my bra!
The new DSM revision may incorporate 'atypical anorexia nervosa' as a "condition of interest, though not yet a full diagnosis – to describe people who qualify for a diagnosis of anorexia in every way except the low body weight. I'm very pleased.
THANK YOU for mentioning the diabetes article. I read that last Friday (which appeared in my-friend-the-biology-postdoc's facebook feed with a comment of "cool"), and I got so mad.
I think Type 2 diabetes is so tightly linked in people's minds with OMGOBESITY!!1!!1! that a lot of the same screwed-up assumptions get applied to it:
– the plural of anecdote is data
– if a result confirms your bias, you don't have to look at confounding factors
– "do not harm" doesn't apply to fat bodies
When I objected, my friend (correctly) pointed out that diabetes is a really nasty disease. But when was the last time you heard someone say "let's see if starvation will cure epilepsy" or "let's publish the results of this very small and very short-term study (which mentions dangerous behaviors) on asthma in the LA Times"?
Luckily, I got to talk it over with two other (particularly awesome) friends soon afterward. And one of them has a family history of thin diabetics and was previously in a relationship with an anorexic, and so was both informed and sympathetic.
Actually, they HAVE (and perhaps still do?) used starvation to treat epilepsy. I don't know how popular a method it is/was, or how effective, either, but I'm pretty sure some folk touted a ketogenic or even a complete starvation diet as a great way to treat epilepsy.
That in no way detracts from your larger point, of course, but it's interesting that we so often use a food approach as a way to treat disease or other health issues – "feed a cold, starve a fever," or "eating anything other than completely organic everything during pregnancy will probs give your baby hideous defects," or all of those supplements full of the flax seed this and the rare rainforest berry that which will ensure not only that you lose all unwanted fat, but also gain boundless energy and never get sick, because antioxidants!!!one!
I wonder how many other serious health issues (like Type 2 & epilepsy) we've tried it on over the years.
…Astonishingly, the female spotted hyena urinates, copulates and gives birth through her pseudopenis.
I've read that many first-time mothers die due to fatal tearing during birth. In my search of an actual percentage, I found an article at The Smithsonian with a passage I found interesting: "The most obvious advantage of "these bizarre structures," as Holekamp calls them, is power over reproduction. Mating is impossible without full female cooperation."
You know, I was just lamenting this whole Diet Soda Is Bad thing because I happen to love diet soda of pretty much all varieties–root beer, fresca, coke, sprite… As a young adult, I didn't like the taste of coffee but had a need for caffeine, so I developed a pretty solid addiction to Diet Pepsi. Since I've been back in the United States after several years overseas (where DP was much less available than Diet Coke), I've transferred my loyalty.
The thing is that I don't have many "vices"–if you want to call them that. Don't smoke, can't drink alcohol due to medications and it just not agreeing with me, don't do drugs…all I've ever "done" is diet soda. And since I grew up dieting, I've probably eaten/drunk some ghastly amount of artificial sweeteners which have apparently contributed to what I look like these days. As commenter Monica–who is apparently my twin–noted, IRONY!
I know I should just stop drinking it, but–to me, at least–it is just so good! Nothing gets my afternoon off to a good start better than a big ol' fountain Diet Coke. *sigh*
I read your blog all the time and comment sparingly, so please believe when I say I mean this with all respect.
I read your article on bra storage and as a cashier, can I just say you are welcome to keep whatever you want in your bra, but please don't hand me sweaty money out of it. This has nothing to do with your sexuality. It has everything to do with the fact that cashiers are low-paid, stuck with an aweful job, and are have probably already dealt with ten complaining costumers before you set foot in the store. We don't know if you have hep C or Aids or whatever else. Most of us don't get our 10 minute breaks and can only wash our hands every four hours and our lines are too busy to stop and sanitize like we should. This means that your sweat is going onto my hands, then onto the next guy's nectarine, and he probably isn't going to wash it before he eats it in the car. Money is gross already and my fingers are black from it at the end of the night. It does touch people's hands, but there's no helping that.
Yes, there are worse things (a guy tried to hand me bloody money once), but I am always grateful if people try to make my day a little easier.
Nicole- I love that you mentioned fountain diet soda! I have a diet cola problem, I'll admit it, and it HAS to be from a fountain. I spend a pretty ridiculous amount of money on drive thru diet coke.
re:trip to L.A. to meet mother and daughter dynamic duo–I am so jealous!!
Not only do I love Huge and My So Called Life, but also Once and Again was amazing.
Can't wait to here what you all talked about.
I am not a Diet Coke (or any diet drink) drinker for two reasons:
1) Fake sugar tastes gross – I would rather have HFCS than that crap
2) Fake sugar also gives me horrible stomach aches and um, digestive problems of the Olestra kind.
In talking with various drs and such over the years, it seems that many people have a sensitivity to any and all fake sugars – some more than others and if you can taste the aftertaste, you are one of those people. The degree of this varies from person to person and I happen to be one of those people who have to avoid it. Lucky me!
Hi! You don't know me from Adam, but I've been in love with your coverage of Huge (and your blog in general) since you started posting about the show. As such, I have two things to say: 1) that is so cool that you met Savannah Dooley in person!, and 2) Have you heard about the movie Terri? It wasn't on my radar at all until a day or two ago, but apparently it stars the actor who played Piznarski, and the New York Times has given it a pretty good review (which is how I learned of its existence), so now I'm tentatively excited to check it out, and I thought I should pass along the word if you didn't already know about it.
"Obesity is the leading cause of Type 2 diabetes"–that is just a plain old lie. Genetics is crucial. To say that obesity causes Type 2 diabetes is, at best, like saying that having red hair causes sunburn. Dyeing your hair black does not prevent the burn.
I became Type 2 officially about 4 months ago, and in the first 3 months, through diet (the real kind) and medication, and a little exercise, brought one measurement reflecting blood sugar down from off-the-charts to normal. When I was diagnosed–when I was running very high blood sugars–it turned out I had already lost 15 lbs in the previous 4-5 months. So my weight was going down while my blood sugar was creeping past the crucial point which Also, I felt terrible and was depressed (a result of the high blood sugar, I think). I have kept on losing weight, but I keep coming back to this blog I think because losing a lot of weight is actually kind of scary. Maybe I am in denial but I keep insisting that controlling my blood sugar is causing me to lose weight, not the other way around.
Um. I read this blog often and I usually agree with you on body-policing stuff. But I can't agree with you on the dismissal of a potential cure for type-2 diabetes.
It's not about fat people. It's about sick people. The doctors aren't equating 'fat' with 'sick', they are equating 'diabetes type 2' with 'sick'. It's explained in the article; through the harsh diet the fat on the pancreas can be removed, thus producing insuline again.
This is massive turning point, if it's true. They didn't 'starve' their patients because they were fat, they 'starved' them because their disease is directly related to storage of fat ON THEIR INTERNAL ORGANS (nothing to do with their image or aspect or looks), and the effect that their otherwise normal ingest of carbohydrates has on their PARTICULAR bodies which happen to have diabetes.
I have a friend with type-2 diabetes. I don't care if he's fat, he's gorgeous either way. But if going on a crash diet (supervised by a doctor, NOT some idiotic dietician) means he'll be cured and THEREFORE able to lead a normal life again (eating carbs again, etc, although under medical supervision), it would turn his life around.
In fact, it would mean he would be able to eat ice cream again without worrying about ending up in hospital.
Seriously, let's not mix things up. I know most people hate fat, most people wrongly link fat to unhealthy lifestyles. We live in a horrible body-policing culture.
But diabetes is not a product of that culture, it's a freaking disease. Unbelievable how easily dismissive everyone is being about this. As if things were always black and white.
Hi Lesley. I don't comment often (um, once?) because I'm not clever or funny or even always articulate. But I'm putting up a bat signal on this one.
I donate money to this group: http://www.ospirg.org because they've done some good things in Oregon. But recently they have started a "fight childhood obesity" campaign that is pushing all my rage buttons. Their point seems to be to get congress to drop subsidies for HFCS, hydrogenated fat, and other big agribusiness food chemicals. Which, honestly, I am all for. But their approach is mightily pissing me off?
I want to ask them why they aren't framing this as a children (and adult) health issue: better, cheaper access to healthier foods. Instead it seems like a huge scare campaign. But I don't know how to present this confronted with all their charts and studies and graphs.
I *love* the picture of you with Savannah Dooley! How cool is that?!?! Thanks for sharing it.
On other topics, am I the only person around who *doesn't* drink soda, regular or diet? We had it occasionally growing up but not very much. I did drink it in my 20s but gave it up when I was pregnant and found I didn't really miss it. I'd truly much rather have ice water most of the time.
Occasionally I miss a good A&W root beer and will have some, but other than that, I rarely have any and just don't miss it. Giving up soda didn't make a bit of difference in my weight or anything (not that I cared) but it's really nice not to need or want it. Most of the people I know (fat or not) don't drink a lot of soda, if any, so it's strange to me to see all these people in the comments waxing poetic over their love of soda of whatever kind. Surely I'm not alone!


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Pope: 'It Is in Christ Alone That ... Hope (of the Resurrection) Finds Its Basis in Reality'
Benedict XVI offers Mass for bishops and cardinals who have died in the last year.
VATICAN CITY (EWTN News/CNA)—At a Mass for those cardinals and bishops who have died during the last year, Pope Benedict XVI said that the promise of the resurrection rests only on Christ and not any sort of naturalistic power.
Pope Benedict began his Nov. 3 homily in St. Peter's Basilica by noting that Christ's victory over death was foreshadowed eight centuries beforehand by the prophet Hosea.
He said that the writings of Hosea were "deeply impressed on the heart and mind of Jesus," who would quote from them and, in the case of Hosea 6:2, actually live it out. In that passage, Hosea predicted that God "will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence."
Jesus takes this verse and "makes it his own and realizes it in his paschal mystery," so that when "the Lord Jesus went to meet his passion," the "oracle of the prophet Hosea rang true in his own words," the Pope said.
He noted that just as the disciples "did not understand the saying" of Jesus and "were afraid to question him," so "we, too, (when) faced with death, we cannot but feel the feelings and thoughts dictated by our human condition."
We, with our natural fear of death, are "always surprised and superseded by a God who is so close to us that he does not even stop before the abyss of death, which indeed he goes through, remaining in the tomb for two days."
Thus, "the mystery of the 'third day' takes place," said the Pope, explaining that it then became apparent that Christ took on our mortal flesh, "so that it may be invested with the glorious power of God."
Toward the end of his homily, Pope Benedict explained that the Jews of Hosea's time were tempted to mingle Judaism with the "naturalistic religions of the land of Canaan," so that the promise of resurrection "was in danger of being reduced to an illusion, a symbol derived from the rhythm of the seasons: 'like autumn rain, like spring rain.'"
Similar temptations must be avoided today, he said, since "it is in Christ alone that this hope finds its basis in reality."
"The new and eternal life is the fruit of the tree of the cross, a tree that blooms and bears fruit because of the light and strength that comes from the sun of God."
"Without the cross of Christ, all the energy of nature is powerless before the negative force of sin," the Pope said.
He then commended the souls of each of the deceased bishops and cardinals to God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that "this mystery of communion, which filled all their lives, may be fully accomplished in each of them."


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Civic Knowledge = Civic Power:
A Weekly Series Focused on How Congress Works (or Should Work)
The powers of the United States Congress are considerable and well established. Congress can collect taxes, coin money, declare war, raise and support armies and a navy, and make all laws necessary and proper to carry out its powers – just to name a few. But understanding Congress cannot be done in a vacuum or just through a listing of powers
This spring join the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies and partners for a weekly lunch and learn series focused on developing a better understanding of Congress. Civic Knowledge = Civic Power invites guest speakers from the Department of Political Science to give brief talks on topics connected to the history and function of this branch of government, followed by informal discussion with attendees. From the basics of how a bill becomes a law, to a look at historic uses of the filibuster, spend your lunch hour building your civic muscles! Coffee and light desserts will be provided.
Tuesday, Apr. 25, 12:30-2:00PM (Room 277)
Topic: Use of the Executive Order
Speaker: Dr. Michael Lynch
This program series is sponsored by the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs, the UGA College Republicans, and the UGA Young Democrats. For more information contact email@example.com or call 706-542-5788.


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There has been a cavalcade of postmortems in the aftermath of Cathie Black's resignation. Certainly she was her own worst enemy, yet she bore the burden of an even worse enemy: the principles and policies that she was forced to inherit and defend, probably not against her own better judgment.
The 17 percent approval rating she got is widely construed as a vote of no confidence in her as a particular leader. But was it not also a vote of condemnation, or at least robust skepticism, of the convictions and rabid anti-union policies of her predecessor? Is it not possible that only 17 percent of those questioned in the reliable and scientific Marist poll are now embracing the much trumpeted and now largely discredited so-called "reforms"?
Let's not forget that 61 percent of parents with kids in public schools think that the union, so dumped on by City Hall and Tweed, are predominantly a force for good in this city. And our public schools are rated even higher by parents whose kids attend our public schools than they are by parents with no such personal experience whose judgment is clouded by the cataract of City Hall's press office.
The tide is turning against lies and bullying. That's what the data says and we know that data is the love object of City Hall and, at least until a few days ago, Tweed. Chancellor Walcott: look not only at the data but through it. A world of truth, some of it quite splendid, will open up and invite your friendship.
Ron Isaac
Fresh Meadows


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|System: Xbox 360*, PS3, PC
|Dev: 2K Marin
|Pub: 2K Games
|Release: August 20, 2013
|Players: 1
|Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p
|Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
As it should, the sound of this XCOM title seems to pull some inspiration from last year's counterpart. The score has similar undertones of eerie and foreboding themes, but still manages to feel unique. But the best part of the soundscape has to be the inclusion of voice-acting. Don't get me wrong, some of the voice work in the game is horrendous. But for the most part, the acting is well-done. It has a noire undertone and kind of feels like writing from a 50's or 60's cop show with, you know, aliens in it.
Although, I did have some issues in the sound department. Some ambient noise seemed to be inconsistent or overly loud, especially during conversations, which I found annoying at points. And when listening to recordings, the directional sound was off, and as I got further away or turned in another direction the audio would get unbearably loud or whisper quiet, when it should have been the other way around. It was an oddity, but nothing too annoying, I just had to position myself and stay put while I listened. But these minor gripes don't really impact the total quality of the audio, which is decidedly well done.
But, before I close this out, I do want to say one thing. I really would have liked to see a Co-op mode in this game. Not so you could play through the game in co-op, but a mode where you could play through towns as you completed them in the game, with another team backing you up. Maybe next time, who knows?
Being an XCOM fan, I was sincerely hopeful that they didn't destroy the name of this franchise with a generic third-person shooter, which could have easily been the case. But they didn't. They did so much more. They expertly crafted the beloved gameplay elements of the XCOM universe into an intuitive third-person experience, while delivering an interesting story, which is no easy task. And if one thing can be said about The Bureau: XCOM Declassified it's this – you can't find a gameplay experience like this anywhere else (even in other XCOM games.) If you are a XCOM fan, you need to try this game. If you're not, well, you may be very soon.
Joshua Bruce
Video Director
Date: August 20, 2013
Game Features:


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Road to the Show 3.0
Now includes interactive training, new settings, a new steal/ lead-off system, presentations and coach interactions. Interactive training will consist of a set of mini-games designed to improve a player's ability and performance in various areas of baseball.
Online Season Leagues
Along with improvements to the traditional Online Leagues, MLB 09 will offer major additions to Online Season Leagues! New Online Season Leagues will allow you to hold a fully functional draft and utilize a Flex Schedule, allowing players to play games ahead in the schedule.
Custom Music, Fan Yells and Chants
Using our My MLB Music feature, store all of your favorite music for play on MLB 09 The Show on your Memory Stick. You can also edit any of your tracks and assign a batter walk-up to all of your favorite players. Along with Custom Music, MLB 09 will also offer Custom Fan Yells and Chants. Record a yell, with your own voice, and assign it to play for the player and situation of your choice.
Other Key Features
Roster Vault (upload/download/rate)
This gives users the ability to create their perfect roster offline by adjusting player attributes, appearance, accessories, etc… Users can then save this Roster to their Memory Stick. Once online users can upload them from where they are stored to allow others users online to download, use and rate their Roster. The new Roster Vault feature lets the The Show community share and judge any Roster.
Catcher Called Games
Ever heard that good pitching beats good hitting? The Show pushes the envelope for realism by incorporating catchers calling pitches. You'll really know what it feels like to stand on the mound and nod or shake a pitch from the catcher. It's up to you – just don't make a mistake pitch. The catcher's setup also acts as a guide to your decisions on where to locate a pitch. Are you a Cy Young or a Robin Roberts?
Sports Connect News2Go affords you the same functionality as the PS2 version but takes it one step further. When online with your PSP, you can select to save the latest news feeds to your memory stick and review at your leisure – offline or on the go.
Make Educated Decisions With The Improved In-Game Pitcher and Batter Analysis
Stats and match-up analysis are a baseball fan's dream! The Pitch Analysis is a breakdown of all the pitches thrown during the current game being played. You'll be able sort by pitcher, LHB or RHB, pitch type and result. This is also available for Batters. The batter analysis allows for a breakdown of how each batter has performed based on LHP or RHP, pitch type and the result. The pitcher and batter analysis is available for both in-game and post-game. The analysis will appear in the batter / pitcher status screen and the post game pause menu. This information is available for every game played, as well as your Road to the Show career.
Track Batters Throughout The Season With New Progressive Batting Performance
Superior performance will earn you rewards and slumps, but will require a little extra effort. Specific to each batter, you'll be rewarded with slight contact bonuses for each batter who performs beyond his statistical ability under your control. Conversely, if your performance takes a dip, you'll see slight decreases in contact for each batter that performs below that statistical ability. Performances will be based roughly on each batter's last 20-30 ABs (w/ recent ABs weighted heavier).
Sports Connect Online User Tracking (SCOUT) Makes Online Matchups Easy
If you've ever had a difficult time finding someone online with the same gameplay setting as yours, the SCOUT system is for you. SCOUT allows you to set your game preferences, store them on the server and look for a Quick Match with an opponent that fits your criteria.
Adaptive Pitching Intelligence (API) really puts you on the bump. MLB 09 The Show is the only baseball game to ever give you the choice to trust your catcher or shake him off. With API, catchers will call the game for you based on the strengths and weakness of each pitcher. And beyond that, catchers will also analyze tendencies of the batters to know if a batter is susceptible to chasing a high heater out of the zone or off-speed low and away.
Pitch Command System (PCS) delivers unsurpassed authenticity and strategy to pitch selection in a baseball videogame. A pitcher's "pitch comfort" will be predetermined based on a best pitch to worst pitch scenario. Now it's up to you to decide if you should try to "work on a pitch" or just go with what is working. The more you work on one pitch, the better it becomes. Conversely the more you neglect a pitch; the more challenging it becomes to work the zone.
Online League Play
Providing you with the ability to set up leagues with up to 30 teams offering full stat tracking, point benefits and rewards. Customize as you see fit; choose your players, teams, length, rules and much more. Whether it's you and a couple buddies or 29 of your closest friends, bragging rights are on the line.
Umpire Personalities
This year umpires will have unique tendencies and animations. But most importantly, each umpire will have his own definition of the strike zone. It's up to you to figure out if they're calling the zone high, low or giving you the corners. The quicker you figure it out, the more successful you'll be.
Multi-Branch Fielding takes Branch Point Technology to a new level. Now you can take full control of fielders and break out of any animation in the process. Change your fielding decision and branch out of any animation after the first branch point. With Branch Point Technology you'll pull off unbelievably smooth, fluid transitions for seamless double plays and relays.
3-Man Booth with Rex Hudler bringing additional energy to tell it like it is. Hudler joins Matt Vasgersian and Dave Campbell for the most comprehensive commentary you've heard in any baseball game. MLB 09 The Show sets the bar high with progressive commentary that changes you progress through the game, adapting to current actions and situations.
User Controlled Slides let you control base runners down to the last detail. Split-second decisions are the difference between a win and a loss so as you round the bases, you decide when it's time to get dirty.
Rivalry Mode allows you to set up and maintain multi-game rivalries between multiple gamers or versus the CPU. Follow everything from wins to Ks and see who has the winning edge every time you challenge your rival. Whether you play offline or online, you'll be able to keep track of all your rivalry stats and bragging rights.
Game Time Decisions bring more depth to Franchise and Season Modes. Only MLB 09 The Show provides the ability to take full control of your team when you're forced to make the tough decisions. An injured player on the roster or a pitcher who needs more rest – the decision to play them is yours. If you ever thought you could be a big league manager this is the year to test your skills.
Progressive Broadcast adapts and utilizes game-specific presentations tailored to your career spotlight player as the season progresses.
Sports Connect Headline News lets you stay on top of all the news around the league. Receive all the current happenings in sports today. Information will be updated a few times each hour with news, trades and events from 31 different feeds, each containing 25 unique items. You can also select General MLB headlines for updates from all 30 teams in the league so no important news is missed while online with MLB 09 The Show.
Enhanced Career Mode incorporates a New Career Spotlight underscoring all of the accomplishments and failures during your career and showcases them in the limelight. You still call the shots but now the ramifications of your actions are documented. It's up to you to determine whether your reel consists of highlights or miscues.
Enhanced Franchise Mode gives the critics more to rave about extending the functionality where performance and player morale are tracked on virtually every level – salary, playing time, batting slot, team performance, you name it – you control it.
Unique Stadium Ambiance for every MLB team specific to their stadium with coordinated crowds, team colors and audio that catering to each team and specific players.
Release Point Pitching takes video game pitching to a whole new level utilizing a timing mechanism you must learn realize pitching pace and release point which varies from pitcher to pitcher.
The Pitching Confidence Meter plays a key role your ability to hit spots. Your frequency of mistake pitches will impact the confidence level of your hurler making it more difficult to hit your spots and paint the corners.
Guess Pitch tests your ability to master "the sweet science". Check out the pitch history and sit on what you think the pitcher will throw next. If you sit on the right pitch your power attribute is increased. For the ultimate reward sit on pitch and location and leave the yard in a hurry.
PlayMaker Fielding at its core is based on fielding attributes but it's ultimately up to you play to your team's strengths and weaknesses. Excellent fielders will track them down for you while sub-par fielders will require some concentration from you.
Unassisted Fielding Control allows fielding freedom with the ball in hand. Take advantage of more realistic barehanded flips and the ability to dive with the ball in the fielder's bare hand for the putout.
Hundreds Of Personalized Animations shows you recognizable, personalized player animations for everything from walk-ups, rituals, stances, swings – even emotions. All told more than any other baseball game on any platform. Guaranteed!
Unprecedented Online Options featuring head-to-head gameplay, 30-team leagues, King of the Diamond, live sports tickers, message boards, buddy lists, headset functionality, downloadable rosters, chat, and more.
Authenticity, Subtleties & Nuances like drag bunts, wild pitches, broken bats, check swings, off-line throws and much more.


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Parties gird for possible Hagel fight
Once again, Democrats and Republicans are preparing for a nomination fight even before there's a nomination.
In this case, Chuck Hagel for Defense secretary.
Amid reports that President Obama is prepared to put Hagel in the Pentagon, supporters and critics have been busy lining up for and against him.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined Sunday to endorse the prospective nomination of his former Senate GOP colleague, saying only that whoever is nominated will get a thorough vetting.
"I'm going to take a look at all the things Chuck has said over the years," McConnell said on ABC's This Week. "I'm going to want to see how the hearings go."
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate's number two Democrat, noted that Hagel is a Republican, a former senator from Nebraska, a decorated combat veteran who served in Vietnam, and has vast foreign policy experience. Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Durbin also pointed out that Obama won the presidential nomination, and is entitled to name his team.
"Yes, (Hagel) is a serious candidate," Durbin said.
Some Republicans, including Arizona Sen. John McCain, said Hagel has been too critical of Israel and too soft on Iran and its nuclear program. Gay rights groups have also been critical of Hagel for his criticism of a gay ambassador nomination during the Bill Clinton presidency.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on CNN that he likes Hagel personally, but he is "out of the mainstream" on foreign policy views, and his nomination would be "antagonistic." Graham also noted that Hagel has cut his ties to the Republican Party.
"This is an in-your-face nomination by the president," Graham said. "This is a controversial pick."
White House officials said Hagel is a leading candidate, but the president has not yet made a final decision on a replacement for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
In a Meet the Press interview a week ago, Obama praised Hagel as "a patriot. He is somebody who has done extraordinary work both in the United States Senate, somebody who served this country with valor in Vietnam. And is somebody who's currently serving on my intelligence advisory board and doing an outstanding job."
As for the gay comment, Obama noted that Hagel has apologized for it.
Though a Republican, Hagel was critical of the Iraq War during the George W. Bush administration. In the fall, he endorsed a Democrat in the U.S. Senate race in Nebraska, former Senate colleague Bob Kerrey (who lost).
Washington engaged in a similar pre-emptive nomination fight late last year when Obama considered nominating United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice to be secretary of State; the president eventually nominated Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for the post now held by Hillary Rodham Clinton..


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According to this new release from the Evans Data Corporation, certain technologies are being more well used in other areas besides in North America - including PHP.
There is a greater disparity with PHP use in Emerging Markets. The largest number of developers using the language can be found in Eastern Europe (39%). India and Brazil have similar usage at a little over 31%. In contrast, only 21% of Chinese developers are utilizing PHP. In North America, 35% of developers are using PHP.
They also talk about the usage rates of a few other technologies, including Flash, Ajax, Windows, and Linux.
Cal Evans also mentions these trends in this post on the Zend Developer Zone as well as linking to the full EDC report.


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Oven Hot Pizza , great tasting Subs and Fresh Delicious Salads & Dinners
Fresh, Seasonally inspired ingredients
This place is the best! the staff is amazing . And i bet you that the steak tip salad is the best thing you have ever had in your life!!!!
Big Al's pizza has the best italian subs ever. I strongly recommend there pizza too. The pizza is not greasy at all. The owner is very nice. I really love there steak tips sub
Big Al's pizzaQuick f riendly service .delicious food Good prices .and fast delivery !!!!


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Oprah Winfrey's network OWN is being sued by a former employee on the grounds of sex and pregnancy discrimination, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
Watch Super Bowl ads before the big gameCarolyn Hommel filed suit against OWN on Friday, claiming that she was replaced when she was forced to take medical leave while pregnant. Hommel was hired in 2010 as senior director of scheduling and acquisitions at the network. According to Hommel, she was on track to become vice president, but during her leave, her duties were given to a temporary employee. When she returned to the office, Hommel also claims that she was excluded from numerous meetings. A month after giving birth, on March 19, 2012, Hommel was fired.After receiving encouragement, she applied for the vice president job, but Hommel claims that her former boss Michael Garner's performance review misrepresented her duties, making her seem under-qualified for the vice president position.


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The 7 PM concert, directed by Laura Pietropinto, also features Meghann Fahy (Next to Normal, NBC's "Chicago Fire"), Preston Sadleir (Next to Normal tour), Krista Pioppi (Spring Awakening tour) and Taylor Noble.
A Lasting Impression, according to press notes, "is the story of two sisters, Kali, a composer, and Simone, a painter, told through the eyes of a jaded young journalist, Josh, who is searching for his 'next big story.' As Josh recounts his interviews with these two artists living in modern-day Brooklyn with their mother, he uncovers the secrets of a crumbling family. Through musical and visual elements, the sisters' artwork is woven through Josh's narrative. A Lasting Impression is about the impact we make through love and art."
The concert is presented by Cutting-Edge Composers in association with Hope Lights Partners. Music direction is by Virginia Hart Pike with orchestrations by Benjamin Rauhala and Julie McBride.
A Lasting Impression, winner of Pace New Musicals 2012 and performed Off-Broadway at the 4th Street Theatre at NYTW in August 2012, won the 2013 NJ Playwright's contest.
Songwriter Sarnak has four full-length musicals in development, including Mixtape, which was featured in Silent Street Productions' 2012 season.
Joe's Pub is located at 425 Lafayette Street. For more information and tickets, visit JoesPub.com.


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Talk:Architecture - Libcfs
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